This application requests support of a conference to be held under the auspices of the Federation of American Societies of Experimental Biology (FASEB) entitled "New Perspectives in Transporter Biology." This is the fourth bi-annual FASEB conference on the subject and is scheduled to be held from July 5 - July 10, 2003 at the Omni Tucson, in Tucson Arizona. Recent developments will make the meeting of great interest to a wide range of investigators, and we expect attendance by approximately 160 scientists. This conference will focus on the role of transport proteins in a number of biological systems, from renal physiology to synaptic transmission. The principles elucidated in one system have already begun to help illuminate the role of membrane transport in others. In addition, the meeting will address the function of transport proteins at multiple levels, from protein structure to behavior of the organism. Biophysical studies at high resolution have indeed already suggested novel roles for various transport proteins not anticipated from classical measurements of radiotracer flux. The meeting will thus provide an unusual opportunity for interaction between many different groups, including physiologists, molecular and cell biologists, biochemists, biophysicists, and structural biologists. The range of biological questions addressed will also encourage interactions between diverse groups. In addition to the role of transporters in normal physiology, the meeting will consider their role in disease (e.g., drug abuse and neural degeneration) and in drug delivery. The conference will consist of nine oral scientific session over five days (morning and evening), and afternoon poster sessions. The topics include epithelial transport, transport in disease, astrocyte-neuron interactions, regulation of transporters by membrane trafficking and changes in intrinsic transport activity, their role in signalling, intracellular transporters, transport mechanism and protein structure. Each oral session will be followed by a panel discussion of the topic. To promote the advancement of junior faculty, the most exciting poster submissions will be selected for short oral presentations during the regular oral sessions.